


Approach

by CollisionTheory



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, I need to plan it all out first but I just wanted to get this little scene out, So far it's between Thrawn becomming Commodore and Rebels, The story will probably necessitate a more mature rating, This may turn into an Outer Rim detective story with Thrawn and archaeology and force cults, but I can post that separately and leave this bit alone, but I may combine Legends and Disney Canon, or keep this "series" as just fun safe stuff, since elements of both intrigue me, we might even meet Darth Vader!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 09:54:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27349246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CollisionTheory/pseuds/CollisionTheory
Summary: Small scene taking place among the crew of an imperial Lambda shuttle as its prepares to land at a military research station to pick up something important.





	Approach

**Author's Note:**

> Crew Leader Andras Banai is an enlisted man who works on the electrical and coding side of Imperial Navy aviation. He's trained to work on TIEs and is in charge of his own team/division. Senior Lieutenant Ruvi Lazio is a flight officer. She doesn't pilot anything herself but handles stuff like navigation, communications, weapons, certain countermeasures, etc. while the pilot is busy piloting. Banai and Lazio are around the same age and assigned to the same star destroyer, the ISD Overwatch. They're good friends.
> 
> TK-755 is a stormtrooper whose surname is Jenneck. TS-608 is also a stormtrooper. Her surname is McGrath. They haven't worked together before but have both been assigned to guard/accompany Banai down to the research station to pick up something important.

Thin streams of vapor trailed behind the Lambda shuttle’s wings as it slipped through the skies of Kohsh IV, descending in a steady arc that brought the moon’s patchwork surface of icy lakes and forested escarpments into sharper and sharper relief. The shuttle moved into a cloud bank and Flight Officer Ruvi Lazio leaned forward in her co-pilot’s seat to flip open a voice channel.

“Station, this is shuttle LW-2447.”

A response came back over her headset almost immediately.

“Shuttle LW-2447, transmit your clearance code, acknowledge.”

“Station, acknowledged and transmitting.” 

Her fingers worked off muscle memory to transmit the day’s code as she went through the rest of the landing procedure, half of a team with the pilot next to her who smoothly guided their approach towards a distant landing pad on a small mesa. Officially this was just part of a failed mining complex dating back to the early days of the Clone Wars, but because the shuttle and its star destroyer the ISD Overmatch had unofficially come here on no less than official navy business, this was the entrance to a military research station. 

The inside of the shuttle bay was quiet except for the constant, hollow whine of the engines. TK-755 slouched in his seat, staring into the depths of a bead of reddish hydraulic fluid on some exposed tubing. TS-608 stood nearby, her stormtrooper helmet tucked under one arm, the other raised to let her hold the overhead grips. She rhythmically smacked on a spice-root chew in a way that might have been obnoxious had TK-755 not long since become used to it and tuned it out. 

TK-755 and TS-608 were Jenneck and McGrath respectively, but “Jenneck” and “McGrath” weren’t names that spoke to the omnipresent, inexorable nature of imperial rule. Jenneck could finish up his enlistment and go on to map new hyperspace lanes at the edge of imperial space, or he could very unfortunately be accidentally be shoved out a maintenance airlock after reporting late to muster for the fourth day in a row, successfully pushing back the entire thing by two hours into ungodly hours of the morning. Whatever happened, it didn’t matter. There would always be more TKs, each as interchangeable in a planetary occupation force as the last. 

The sound and feel of the shuttle’s flight abruptly shifted, snapping TK-755 out of his trance. Almost there. He balanced his hands on his knees and turned his head to address his fellow trooper in a voice characteristically modulated by his helmet. 

“Ready for the hand-off?”

TS-608 swallowed the spice-root chew and looked down at him impassively, nodding. 

“Yeah, should be pretty routine…” She looked around at the opposite row of seats, eyes fixed on the man sitting there. 

Soothed by the dull roar of atmospheric flight and having seized an opportunity to rest when he could, Crew Leader Andras Banai had fallen asleep. He wore a black service uniform with his cap resting in his lap. A whorl of dark curly hair above his forehead twitched back and forth, buffeted by some small air current circulating inside the shuttle.

“…Ready though? Not this guy.” Continued TS-608.

“I’ll wake him up-“ TK-755 half pushed himself out of his seat before TS-608 held her hand up, eyes closed and shaking her head gently.

She turned towards the cockpit where the pilot and Flight Officer Lazio were finishing up their landing procedure, wasting time on something McGrath herself had always believed droids were better suited to be doing anyway. Letting go of the ceiling grip, she put on her helmet and looked again at Jenneck who sat back down and assumed quizzical body language.

TS-608 made the “shh” sign with her gloved hand and walked over to the cockpit to whisper something to Ruvi. TK-755 crossed his armored arms uncomfortably and watched Crew Leader Banai’s head roll gently from one side to the other. So peaceful. If he hadn’t screwed up four days in a row, he might have gotten in an extra five total hours of sleep like that this week too... 

The booming voice of station control suddenly exploded out of the bay com speaker. 

“SHUTTLE LW-2447, YOU ARE CLEARED TO LAND. WELCOME TO KOHSH IV STATION.”

TS-608 cackled by the cockpit entrance as TK-755 jolted his body backwards in surprise, slamming his helmeted head against the compartment walls. McGrath smiled conspiratorially back at Flight Officer Lazio as Crew Leader Banai was ripped from the realm of sleep and thrust back into the waking world. Wide-eyed and gasping from the sonic assault, he crushed his cap with one hand and launched himself out of his seat with the other, stumbling over the deck as the two stormtroopers sniggered. 

Banai stood up in the middle of the bay, gesticulating randomly for a moment as he tried to gather his bearings and assimilate into full wakefulness. The Lambda shuttle hissed and wound down its whine as it settled onto the hidden landing pad of Kohsh IV. There was a rumble as the pad itself began to drop down into the rock of the moon’s surface, and Crew Leader Banai fell back into his seat. He pursed his lips and shook his crumpled cap in front of the stormtroopers now spread out in the seats across from him, bug-eyed helmets cocked to the side and facing him directly. 

“You two owe me credits to have this ironed and pressed.” He said, partially seriousness. (Secretly he hoped they’d oblige, but he knew they wouldn’t.)

TK-755's shoulders heaved forward as he snorted, and TS-608 dropped a wrapped spice-root chew into Banai’s crumpled cap in mock payment, both hands clasped together as though she were performing a Corellian religious rite.

The moving landing pad bearing the ISD Overmatch’s Lambda shuttle down into the research station finally locked into place, sending a deep vibration throughout the whole ship. The interior bay lights came on, bathing everything in a harsh, clear light. Crew Leader Banai felt both stormtroopers grinning at him from behind their helmets and was hardly surprised to see Flight Officer Lazio gently smiling at him as she walked into the bay from the cockpit. 

They prepared to disembark, and Banai smiled back. All self-consciousness left him for a short moment as he savored a simple joy. But as he met her eyes, it was as if his uniform had turned to lead, weighing him down with apprehension and dread as the reality of why he had volunteered to come to this station blossomed darkly in his mind.


End file.
